![The picture shows a vignette with a matronly woman and a young woman bringing sausages to an officer wearing a pointed helmet, under Hanswurst's watchful eye.](https://admin.puppetplays.eu/static/images/works/_520xAUTO_crop_center-center_none/Alphons_Muller_Porzinell_Theater2.jpg)
Printed
7 pages
Author(s)
Hans und der betrunkene Nachtwächter
Nächtliches Schauergemälde mit Mondscheinbeleuchtung in einem Akt
Alphons Müller’s comedies have been compiled in the collection Sechs neue Lust-Spiele für das Porcinell-Theater. They use puppet theatre (Porcinell-Theater, or Punch theatre) to deal with themes related to folk life in the countryside. Hans und der betrunkene Nachtwächter is written entirely in verse. The topic and theatrical scenery evoke Frank von Pocci’s Kasperl als Nachtwächter, but it features more trivial comic devices: slaps and punches.
A revenge against an authority figure
Hans is drunk and comes upon the night watchman. He slaps him and beats him to take revenge for having arrested him earlier, when the curfew started. The watchman calls for help and a student arrives. But he also beats him with a cane, for the same reasons as Hans. At the end of the play, Grete comes fetch her husband to bring him home.
Publications and translations
Alphons Müller: Sechs neue Lust-Spiele für das Porcinell-Theater, 2. Auflage, Frankfurt am Main: Jaeger, 1878